Original subtitles

My name is Steve Mena.

I'm the writer, producer, and director of this film "Bereavement."

This is actually a prequel to a film I did quite a few years ago called "Malevolence."”

That film was more in the slasher style of horror film making, whereas,

this is much more of an exploration of the psychology behind a serial killer,

what makes somebody a serial killer and the origins of that kind of madness and evil.

What you're looking at here is the same set we used for "Malevolence."

It took quite a bit of work to get it hospitable to the point

where I could actually have actors go inside and work.

It's a place that's kind of been overwhelmed by the elements over the years.

It's been dormant for I guess about 30, 35 years now.

This Sutter truck was rebuilt from the ground by Tom Bambard,

who's one of the co-producers in the film.

The whole purpose of this sequence...

This originally wasn't in the film,

and this was filmed later on after we had wrapped principal photography.

The purpose of this was not only to establish where the slaughterhouse

is situated, and where he's traveling from, but also to establish a sense

of distance between where Sutter's place is and where he gets his victims.

The idea is to show

that he's traveling a great distance in order to acquire his victims.

He's not kidnapping them from around the corner from his house,

or within his hometown.

The other purpose of this was to show that the kidnapping of Martin

was completely random.

He did not have this kid in mind when he grabbed him.

It was just that Martin was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he spotted him.

The reason I wanted to make sure to convey that point was because of Martin's disease.

Sutter has this notion when he was growing up and working

in the slaughterhouse for his father it was something he was forced to do.

It was the originating genesis behind his psychosis, and his anger and his guilt,

which is what thrusts him into this life of trying

to assuage that guilt through sacrificial murder.

One of the things his father would tell him was that the animals had no feelings,

so you shouldn't feel bad killing them.

I'm sure we've all heard adults say that in our lives,

or make that reference about animals not having feelings.

We've all heard that before.

Anyway, Sutter took it to heart and believed it.

He's a very sheltered person, sheltered child.

When he kidnaps Martin, and Martin doesn't feel any pain

it kind of perpetuates and exacerbates this.

"Exacerbates"”, that sounds like another word that's a naughty word.

Anyway, it kind of exacerbates this notion that his father was right,

and that these people aren't feeling pain.

So it's kind of a convoluted subject.

I wanted to make the point clear that it was just serendipitous

that he happened to get this particular kid with this disease.

And what amplifies that danger more is that because Martin can't feel pain

he can't empathize with his victims, Sutter's victims.

He also can't understand the consequences of their actions coming from such

a young age, and, of course, being indoctrinated into this horrific scenario.

So this also was an alternate beginning to what we originally had,

which gives you a little bit more in depth knowledge of what CIPA is.

CIPA is something called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain.

It's something that I read about in an article one time when I was in Michigan,

and I was just really blown away by it.

It's something that I didn't even know existed.

At first glance you think, "Oh, wow, that's great they don't feel pain”,

but then you research more into it, and you realize how dangerous this disease is.

Your entire defense system is based upon pain telling you,

and alerting you when there's danger to your body.

So I found that very intriguing.

And I thought it might give an interesting back story to why in "Malevolence"

Martin doesn't feel pain when he's hit over the head, or when he's stabbed.

You get a lot of stories with serial killers

who just are impervious to pain just because.

At least with this story there is actual logistical reason for why Martin

seems to be able to endure all the things that he's put through.

Now in real life CIPA is actually a much more dangerous condition than we portray.

These kids poke their own eyes out.

They eat their fingers.

It's really horrific and most of them don't live past the age of I think 15 or 18.

So if you ever look it up it's extremely rare, and extremely deadly and very sad.

All this was shot in and around Pennsylvania in the Allentown area.

It's a place I'm very familiar with since shooting "Malevolence" there,

and we had a really good time.

The people are fantastic.

It's a great place to shoot, so if you're a filmmaker watching this

I couldn't possibly recommend it more highly.

You've got an incredible diversity of architecture,

and scenery there within a very small radius.

You can get farmland, you can get cityscapes,

you can get suburbia all within a two to three mile radius.

Okay, now we're back.

This was actually the original opening of the film

before we tagged on that additional information.

Again, whatever, I thought it was important.

I do think it's important to know where you're coming from, and where you're

going especially with all the intricacies involved with Martin's disease.

And also trying to convey that Sutter is not kidnapping people in his hometown,

but he's going out of town, sometime even out of state, which, again,

doesn't get conveyed in the story, but that's what's happening.

And that's actually inspired by something that happened.

I grew up in East Meadow.

Well, I moved to East Meadow, and, actually,

was living right around the corner from a serial killer named Joel Rifkin.

Nobody knew him and nobody knew about it, but I had seen him around.

Nobody knew anything about what was going on, but here was a guy

who had murdered 18 people in his basement with his mother living upstairs.

And nobody knew anything about it.

This was a very populated area.

I mean, East Meadow, Long Island, is a very, very densely populated area.

So for him to get away with that there I thought it would be a piece of cake

for a guy like Sutter in the middle of nowhere in this abandoned property

to get away with whatever he wants.

I understand people who have watched the film thought

it was kind of unusual that nobody ever questioned this place.

But if you ever drive through the Midwest, or drive through some rural towns

where you've got these dilapidated buildings every quarter mile people just

tend to overlook what might possibly be going on there and really just not care.

That lack of awareness allows Sutter to exist in this scenario here,

that his neighbors are basically oblivious to what's going on.

This is Marissa Guill, this is her first film.

We discovered her through a random casting call.

I was just basically having girls come in, and telling them to give their best scream.

She came in and just blew the roof off.

I mean, with the moment she opened her mouth

I realized, wow, she's special, and she got the part.

It's very important for me as a filmmaker directing these horror films.

I think sound is even more important than the visual, especially,

the actor's reactions to what's happening to them on-screen.

I think you can scare people a lot more just with audio and just with the realistic

screams that you can get more than even gore, or stabbings, or anything like that.

Not that there's any lack of any of that in this film.

This concludes the acting debut of Chase Pechacek, a brilliant little six-year-old

boy that we found at a random casting call in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

He just came in and did a fantastic job.

Okay, so five years later.

This is now 1994 in this film's time and space.

Here's the Beaver Bus Company, very good to us, and here's Michael Biehn,

who I was absolutely thrilled to get on board with this project.

He is someone who I always had in mind for the role of Jonathan.

Mainly because I felt I needed somebody with his kind of charisma

and body language on-screen to kind of pull off some of the surprises,

and the rug pulls later on in the narrative.

I thought I needed someone like him to make it believable, and to make it a surprise.

You really think he's going to come in, and kick ass and do what he does,

so it makes it a lot more shocking when it doesn't pan out the way you expect.

That's kind of the motif that runs throughout this film.

Things you expect to happen don't usually happen.

Your hopes of what's going to become of these characters is dashed to smithereens.

That was the idea, and that's horror.

Horror doesn't normally end on a positive note, and it shouldn't.

When you approach a film with this kind of subject matter, and you're trying

to introduce verisimilitude to this type of subject matter, you can't whitewash and

dance around the ending, and make it a Hollywood ending to satisfy the masses.

You've got to be truthful.

That's the way I felt, and that's why this film has such a tremendously dark ending.

Not to mention that it dovetails into the beginning of "Malevolence."

Of course, if it ended positively then you couldn't really have "Malevolence" exist.

Because someone would have found this place out,

and Martin wouldn't have been there for another five, six years.

If you can hear it, this song is written by someone I'm a huge fan of,

Monica Schroeder.

She's a singer-songwriter from Toronto, and in my mind just

one of the most beautiful vocalists, and musicians I've ever heard.

The first time I heard her music I was just completely blown away.

I've actually featured her music in my last two films.

This film and "Brutal Massacre: A Comedy,"

which I highly recommend picking up if you haven't.

Here's Kathryn Meisle and Peyton List.

Peyton, who's really come into her own.

She's just finished filming a movie called "Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2."

She has a significant role in that.

Of course, I don't want to forget Alexandra Daddario

who also is really coming into her own.

She's just completed "Hall Pass," and she was the lead in

"Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief".

"Bereavement" was actually filmed long before

either of those movies were made, long before she got those roles.

I like to hope that her involvement with my film

was significant in helping her land those roles.

I know for sure this was her first full-length feature as a lead actress.

We were just really happy to have her on board.

She won the part out of about 200 or 300 different people we were considering,

and I just thought she was by far the best.

She had the physicality to be able to carry Martin at the end,

and she certainly had the look, she had the innocence.

She's extraordinarily intelligent, and very, very intuitive with her acting,

and with interpreting my direction.

I just couldn't have been happier working with her.

Any of you who are watching this who are filmmakers, or are potential filmmakers...

If you're filmmakers you already know what I'm about to say.

But if you're a potential filmmaker and if you see a script

that has anything to do with dogs, mice, cats, rats, or anything like that

just delete them from the script before you get to production.

That's all I'm going to say.

This place was a closed down bus stop/diner.

It was completely empty inside, and we actually had to go in

and populate the entire interior with all the plates and cups, and napkin holders.

Big shout out to Jack Ryan who did a fantastic job as art director in this film.

This is Valentina De Angelis.

We found her in a New York casting call.

Really bright, really fantastic.

She had one of the more difficult roles in this film.

This rain that you see here this is real rain.

We're so lucky we back lit it realizing just how lucky we were

because we weren't able to get any effects for this scene.

I don't remember the reason, but it worked out great because

it rained in the scene that this scene cuts to in the script.

And that was also real rain, and we back lit it and we used it not knowing

how we would manage to get the rain in this scene to cut it together.

Again, it's a limited budget,

and through the benevolence of nature it all worked out really fantastic.

Sutter Meat and Poultry since 1923.

The actual slaughterhouse where this was filmed was actually much older than that.

I think it was more turn of the century around 1905, 1910 that it was established.

This scene was shot during some pickups.

That's actually Brittany, the makeup person, in the bag there struggling.

This was part of a set that was built.

A lot of what you see is real, and actually from the Ironton slaughterhouse.

But there are a few sections that were created

just for the movie this is one of them.

Built with wood that was delivered from an Amish farm

a few miles away from where this was shot.

I'm sure if they knew what it was being used for they would not have approved.

I think you also just saw a glimpse of Spencer List

who plays 11-year-old Martin, and another fantastic actor, Spencer.

He was actually I believe nine years old when we shot this,

and very gifted and talented kid.

This location was found pretty much at random.

I actually left a note on their door saying,

"Hey, we'd like to make a movie using your house."

"Would that be okay?" And they called us back.

Here's Carson and Judy there.

Very, very generous to us.

We could not have made the film without their help, and their patience.

Of course, they wouldn't let me burn their house down later so we had

to get a scale model to do it, so that was disappointing, but otherwise.

Look, she's wearing a Walkman.

You don't see too many of those anymore,

but, of course, this is period this was 1994.

There were no iPods back then to all you youngins out there,

didn't come around 'til about was it 2001?

I wanted to juxtapose the beautiful scenery by the Miller house,

and the ugliness of the slaughterhouse.

Even the colors as you'll notice kind of shift in tone

to match the emotion and the context in the scene.

That was very deliberate... the good and evil.

Because they are really two parallel storylines

that are running concurrently that eventually intersect.

I wanted that color and tone to be a theme that runs throughout the movie.

I also made a very conscious effort not to show

any other houses to maintain that sense of isolation.

In fact, that prior scene where she comes out of the Miller house

there's actually a house in the distance that we took out digitally.

And here, too, there were one or two houses that we painted out,

again, to maintain that sense of isolation.

I remember this was very difficult for Spencer... I think for anybody.

The glass that he's apparently cutting his hand on is made of this spongy material,

but it looks so real.

So it was very difficult for him to just press his hand very hard

because instinctively you think you're going to cut yourself.

Obviously, when you're much younger you tend to trust those instincts even more.

So it was very, very difficult for him to just slam his hand down there.

So we had to do that quite a few times.

Here's Nolan Funk who plays William.

I believe that's Carson who owned the house we were just talking about.

That's his truck.

He's a trucker, so that was him driving by, and almost was killing Alexandra.

Of course, we told him to do it.

This scene was actually very difficult to shoot.

There were guns blazing half the day so we had to try and find spaces

in between because there's no way for us to get them to stop.

It's kind of funny we were joking about it on set.

There's a scene in "Brutal Massacre" where we lampoon them shooting

next to an actual shooting range, and here, it actually happened to us for real.

Although there weren't any bullets whizzing by our head.

Hey, cassette tapes, I remember those.

I think that's Carson in a different truck driving the other way,

or, actually, no, I think it was the next door neighbor.

Everybody in Pennsylvania owns trucks.

Nolan was unable to ride a motorcycle.

He was unlicensed, and he had no experience riding on a motorcycle.

So it's a lot of camera trickery to make it look like he's actually riding.

I think he did a really, really good job.

These scenes are always difficult to edit.

It's always difficult to edit when you're jumping backwards

and forwards in a single shot of two people.

And the background is constantly changing, of course,

we have to do these over and over again.

So getting it to match is always very, very difficult.

I'm not sure who was riding the bike there.

I think that was the nephew of Tom Bambard, one of the co-producers of the film.

The land surrounding the house was owned by a different farmer.

Throughout the course of production we were always faced with the

daunting prospect that he was going to come in and harvest

all the grain, and ruin our continuity for the rest of the film.

I do remember us either bribing or begging for him to postpone it a few weeks.

Of course, if you're a farmer it can be very detrimental

because there are certain periods of time when you have to harvest.

I just remembered them being very, very generous with us,

and giving us that extra time to finish.

I do know we had to rearrange some of our schedule

to make sure that we didn't take advantage of that time.

Those are my feet.

I'm wearing the boots.

I was Sutter for a day.

And this is the first time you really get a good glimpse of Sutter played

by the incomparable Brett Rickaby, who was not my original choice to play Sutter.

Again, I'm very, very lucky that things worked out the way they did.

I couldn't be happier with his performance, or his enthusiasm.

Just an awesome person to work with, and we've become very, very good friends.

Originally, it was supposed to be Patrick Swayze playing the role of Sutter.

But they weren't able to agree on terms or something, and that didn't work out.

Then we discovered Brett Rickaby, and I'm very, very glad that we did.

It worked out fantastic.

Originally this scene was much more brutal.

We shot through the slab wall, and you could actually witness the murder,

and witness the stabbings, and see the girl clearly.

But when I edited it together I felt that it would be much more terrifying

to just imagine what's happening behind the wall then to see it.

And when I showed both versions to people, everybody agreed that less is more.

That's always kind of been my style.

This film is significantly more brutal than the films I'm used to making

with regards to horror films.

It's certainly a lot more bloody, and violent than "Malevolence".

But there are some times where I definitely agree less is more,

leaving it up to the audience's imagination.

A lot of people have asked me questions about

how much carnage these kids actually witnessed when they were making the movie,

and there really was none at all.

Chase Pechacek, who plays Martin at six years old in the beginning,

was in the room, but it was basically a censored view of what he saw.

He heard some of the sounds which we then asked the actress

just to mime the screams and we dubbed them in later.

Because he was really more scared of the noise than anything else.

Spencer, on the other hand loved all the gory scenes, and wanted to participate.

He was thrilled by the whole thing, he thought it was fun.

I kind of laugh when people ask me if the kids were damaged mentally from it.

I remember Spencer complaining because he didn't

actually get to stab his sister on-screen, on camera.

Peyton and Spencer, of course, being brother and sister they're actually twins.

That shot there... that ghostly figure is, again, it's all in Sutter's mind.

That's supposed to be the ghost of Sutter's father

who Sutter killed years and years ago, and keeps upstairs preserved.

This is actually one of my least liked scenes in the film

not because of the acting.

I think the acting is fantastic.

I think the actors do a great job.

I hate that last shot of the slaughterhouse.

As a filmmaker I'd love to be able to go back, and redo certain things.

And that's something

where I really would have loved to have a nice jib shot of the truck passing.

Something a little more cinematic than what we got.

Unfortunately,

that was not something I was able to improve before the film was released.

Of course, I guess you could look at every scene,

and think what about what you'd like to do better, or do different.

But sometimes, well,

most times in independent film you really don't get too many choices here.

Your back is always against the wall with time,

and with money, and your choices are very limited sometimes.

This is a school that was closed down, and we were able to get access to it.

All these kids go to a neighboring school, and we kind of borrowed them for the day.

This was on a Saturday when school was out, of course.

They were all very thrilled to meet Michael Biehn from "The Terminator."

This is one of my more favorite scenes.

It shows the multiple facets to Sutter's personality

where he's kind of crazy one minute, nice to the kid the next.

These are all telltale signs of insanity.

You really never know what you're going to get with this guy,

and that's what makes him so dangerous.

It also conveys his confusion for his own purpose in life, and what he's doing.

He's trying to explain to this 11-year-old kid

what his motivation is with these murders.

It's the ramblings of a madman,

but to Sutter it makes sense what he's doing in his own twisted maniacal way.

He really believes that he's going to somehow find absolution

to his guilt through this sacrificial murder.

Kind of like an eye for an eye he's going out, and doing two things basically.

He's sort of getting revenge for all the sins that he committed against the animals.

In his mind the animals are telling him to go out and get revenge.

And, also, on a much deeper level he's trying to prevent his own birth.

The reason why he mainly goes after women is

he's trying to prevent what happened to him to happen to another child.

Again, that's deep psychology,

but that is kind of the genesis behind some of the things that drove him insane.

Even those little things are kind of nods to cycles of violence,

child abuse, the themes that are running throughout the film.

My point with this movie was to kind of show the repercussions of violence,

and how they not just only affect the person involved,

but their immediate family, and all the people that know them.

When someone gets hurt, or someone gets killed it affects a whole circle of people

that are close to that person.

Those bleachers in this shot really kind of convey

the lameness of where she's been forced to relocate.

I'm not saying that Allentown is lame... anything but.

But just the scene and the shot and the way it's set up really kind of

conveys the isolation that she feels coming from Chicago to this place.

This scene is kind of like the "Jaws" scene where the car is like this shark

lurking in the background just below the surface creeping up.

This was actually a very difficult scene to shoot, too,

to get the car moving at the right speed, and to try and align everything perfectly.

It proved to be very difficult because we're on a moving car.

That's a moving car, she's walking a certain speed,

and to try and coordinate everything is very, very difficult.

Nobody really can read each other's minds, menial actions, so there was

a lot of coordinating involved for something that seems so very simple.

It truly gives you an idea of how difficult it is to shoot scenes

with hundreds of extras, and everything needs to be coordinated,

and the amount of effort that goes into those types of scenes.

So this scene leads into meeting Ted, William's father,

for the first time which is played by John Savage, brilliantly I might add.

Originally there's been a lot of talk about this film

being over two hours long, or 2-1/2 hours long.

There was a tremendous amount that was cut out.

There is a certain level of truth to that.

There was a tremendous amount of footage that was cut,

specifically involving the John Savage character.

It was one of those things where sometimes

you can go too far with a secondary storyline.

I think in this case this that's exactly what happened.

Because John Savage's scenes, and this whole entire relationship

was actually very, very powerful, and could almost be its own movie in itself.

What happened was it actually began to distract from the main storyline,

from Sutter's storyline.

So it was harming the film as a whole,

so those scenes needed to be truncated, again, for the good of the film.

It wasn't that the scenes weren't working.

On the contrary, they were working too well,

and were just a distraction to the overall spine of the movie.

Also, it helped with the pacing as well by eliminating those scenes,

so in the end it was necessary.

Of course, as the writer and the director it's always difficult to lose scenes

like that especially when they're so powerful, and they're working so well.

I think they've included those on this DVD, or Blu-ray, or whatever you're watching.

You might wanna get a chance to look at some of them.

They weren't all included on this.

I did hold a lot of stuff back, but some of the more significant ones are on there.

I remember John didn't really like to memorize his lines,

so he liked to improvise a lot of things, which really keeps you on your toes.

Especially, when you're trying to make the day

trying to capture a vision of what a scene is.

Sometimes,

if you're rigid you can lose sight of the fact that happy accidents happen.

And sometimes when you let people just do their thing that's how magic happens.

That was certainly the case with a lot of John's stuff what was written

and what he eventually brought to the table was actually even better.

Sometimes, you got to let go of what your expectations are,

and just kind of go with the flow.

I love how that bird just knew to fly by just at the right time.

That's not digital that was real.

This is where it sort of first introduces that line about feelings and fear.

It's almost like a riddle in his mind that he's wrestling with his whole life.

It's something that he's trying to truly understand.

He's not just reciting that to sound cool.

It's really something that he's struggling with.

Again, it's all part of the madness.

In his mind Martin is kind of a pure soul, free of guilt, so he doesn't feel the pain.

He doesn't scream because he doesn't have that burden of guilt on him.

Again, it perpetuates this myth in Sutter's brain that what he's doing is right.

He's not causing harm. He's doing the right thing.

Again, it's very twisted.

What he fails to realize in his error is that the boy because of his disease,

and because of his lack of empathy is a dangerous vessel

to be filling with all this hatred, and all this violence.

Because, of course, it eventually comes back to destroy Sutter.

In the end Martin is like the ultimate evil because you can't reason with this kid.

He has no concept or sense of the fact that what he's doing is wrong,

or what he's doing is causing pain, what are the repercussions of his actions.

He has no concept of that, so it makes him a very,

very dangerous person, far more dangerous than Sutter.

Alexandra is truly an amazing talent.

I predict great things for her in the future.

I hope I'm not jinxing her by saying that,

but I really think that she's going to be one of the breakout stars of this decade.

Peyton, too. I think Peyton also has the chance to really,

really breakout and become a huge superstar.

She's just so smart and talented, and beautiful.

I think she's really got a great career ahead of her.

She's such an absolute joy to work with on set, her and Spencer.

Now if you want to get into the psychology of why Martin frees her,

but doesn't kill her.

He lets her go because it would aggravate Sutter.

And that's his main motivation here to kind of piss him off.

Not because he cares about this girl,

or cares about what happens to her because he doesn't.

Of course, the first time you watch this you have no idea of that, but,

of course, in the end you realize he had no motivation to help anyone.

By then he was too far gone.

All he knows is violence.

So here is Sutter talking to the bull's skull, which is not actually there.

It's not really hanging there, I mean, this is all in Sutter's mind.

It's basically a visual representation of the demons that have externalized themselves,

and are plaguing him, tormenting him, and driving him to do what he's doing.

They've twisted his mind.

It's all in his imagination, but his mind has been twisted

by these externalized forces that he thinks are eventually

going to provide him with absolution if he does what they tell him to do.

Again, it comes from being isolated, and from being alone.

People when put into those situations will often find things,

or believe that inanimate objects are talking to them.

A good example is Tom Hanks in the film "Cast Away",

where the ball externalizes itself as an actual other human being.

So with Sutter he believes that those things are real,

and he believes that if he follows their orders,

and follows their plan for him that he'll regain some kind of balance.

With every antagonist in any film there is never any all bad or all good.

Even the bad guy thinks that what he's doing is the right thing to do.

He thinks he's in the right.

Of course, we as sane people looking at this through the prism of normalcy

realize how crazy he is, but in his mind he's doing the right thing.

This set, well, it's not a set, this is the actual slaughterhouse,

and it's just as creepy in real life as it looks on film.

We really didn't have to do much to dress this up.

I mean, all this stuff is there.

All these bins and barrels and machinery, and lights and hooks and all of it.

Even this chain... all of this was there.

This is stuff that we found exploring this place.

What's exciting here is the only difference between that hook,

and the hook that lifts her up into the air is there's a small harness attached to it.

Otherwise she is being lifted the same way that they would hook and

pull the pigs, and move their carcasses through the slaughterhouse.

They would put them on these wheels, and they would wheel them along,

and that's exactly how it looked.

In fact, this entire scene was inspired by a story

told to us by the owner about how they would bring the pigs in,

slit their throats, hoist them up, and then wheel them along.

I thought, "Wow, we've got to do that to somebody."

Unfortunately, for Valentina De Angelis this was her first day on set.

You could imagine she got off the bus,

and came inside and it was like 10 degrees out, so it's freezing when we shot this.

And for her very first scene she's hoisted upside down,

and forced to scream and repeat this scene over and over for 12 hours.

This is all real, these flames are real.

These are all flame bars that were right below her.

She's actually hanging with just this small harness on one leg.

So she can only do it for a few minutes, or a few seconds at a time.

That's why that scene is so broken up.

It's a combination of so many different takes, but she toughed it out.

She was absolutely amazing.

The fact that that's her first day on set to come in

and pull off a performance like that I was blown away.

I just couldn't get over how professional she was, and what a gamer she was.

I know that was a very uncomfortable day for her.

It would have been for anybody.

I'm so glad we cast somebody that was so light because I think

the maximum weight allowance on that thing was about 110 pounds.

I know she's much lighter than that, but it's a good thing.

So here we are... this is Sutter's father underneath

the bed sheet for those of you who haven't figured that out yet.

Sutter always feared his father,

and even in death he still feels the wrath of his dad.

It's a constant struggle in his mind.

In a way by committing the murders that he's doing

he's somehow in his brain regaining control over his universe.

By inflicting death it gives him a sense of control.

That's sort of a way to strike back at his father.

Again, I will reiterate it for those of you aspiring to a film making career.

Anything that says "mice, rats, cats, dogs,"

just delete it from the script before you shoot.

You'll thank me later.

This is Greg Wood, who if you remember, was one of the stars of "The Sixth Sense."

He played the father of the girl who was slowly murdered by the mother in the end...

the pivotal scene of act three with Bruce Willis.

He did the scene in one take.

It's a mouthful... the stuff that he had to say in the scene,

so it's pretty impressive, he came prepared.

Very cool guy.

I love the way the sun set when we shot this it was really perfect timing.

We smoked up the room a little bit,

but we really got a great look just from the actual lighting that was there.

This scene was funny to watch being done.

Ben Semanoff was our Steadicam operator, and to watch him try to run carrying all

that equipment with him behind Alex up that hill... and that hill is very uneven.

It was pretty interesting to see him try and do that, but he did it,

somehow he did it.

He was out of breath, but he did it.

This sequence was shot at two different times.

The exterior one was shot earlier, and then this one was shot on a day

of re-shoots much, much later, but they cut together pretty nicely.

This scene was actually much longer in the beginning.

We cut a lot of stuff out because, well, sometimes,

when you remove scenes it creates ripples.

So there was a scene where Michael Biehn talked to Alex about staying away

from the William character, that he was a bad kid and that sort of thing.

When that was deleted this conversation eventually evolves

into them talking about she asks him about what he said.

He tells her why he thinks he's a bad guy,

and some of the things that happened around town.

Again, all that is rendered useless and meaningless once you delete the other scene

because there is no reason to lead into it because that information isn't there.

That information is actually repeated again later.

Again, in the end it was just redundant, and didn't need to be in the film.

This was shot at a drive-in that's I think still operating.

I'm trying to remember the name of it.

I think Shankweiler's Drive-In in Pennsylvania.

Off 378.

I really love the way these scenes came out.

The lighting by Marco Cappetta, the cinematographer in this film,

did a really fantastic job with this moment in this scene.

If I remember correctly Alexandra and Nolan got along very well on the set,

almost too well, if you get my meaning.

I'm not insinuating anything, but I heard rumors.

Which probably explains why they seem so comfortable here in this scene.

I'm sure all the male crew members on the set were jealous of Nolan.

The bait-and-switch.

That jacket he's wearing is actually my jacket that I wore back in high school,

and for some reason I still have it.

I really like the way this came out, especially, the way he shouts right here.

He really looks pissed.

I wonder how much of that was acting.

This scene is interesting because it's morning right now.

The only reason we were able to pull this off is cuz we're in a valley right here.

This road is surrounded by small hills on both sides.

If I was to tilt the camera up you would see the sunrise.

But because of where this road is situated it actually bought us about

I would say about 15 to 20 minutes of additional nighttime.

We were just so lucky because we were looking for a road.

We really literally had like another hour left,

and we got most of the scene done, and then the sun started to come up.

And because it's nighttime you can just keep driving,

the scenery just kind of repeats itself, but we found this road to turn down.

We didn't know that the road had hills on both sides.

As we were going down there I remember the Assistant Director screaming

"The sun's coming up we're going to have to cut."

Somehow magically we went into this section of road that was surrounded by hills

on both sides, and we got that extra 15 minutes of darkness to complete the scene.

We kind of just totally lucked out.

That was an exciting scene to shoot

just because of all the external forces working against us.

This is a very controversial scene in the film.

Again, this victim is very random.

But in another incarnation of the script

she's actually had a much more pivotal role in the film.

Originally she was driving along, and Melissa got out.

Obviously, she gets killed.

She's the one who gets the hook through the leg,

and she was killed, but originally she gets out.

She gets all the way to the road,

and this woman, Agatha, drives along and picks her up.

She gets in the car, and they don't get a quarter of a mile away

when Sutter's truck smashes into the side of them.

There's this huge car crash, and he drags her in and chains her up,

and basically tells Martin "This is all your fault."

But eventually I decided that it was inappropriate for Sutter to do that.

It would be very out of character for someone

who keeps such a low profile to cause an accident right in front of where he lives

just to capture this person and bring her back.

The motivation was there, but I just didn't think it was realistic.

Also, this scene evolved into a way for Sutter to let Martin prove that he's

"worthy to stay.”

To prove that he's on the right side after letting Melissa go,

or trying to let her get loose.

It's just one of those situations where what was written in the script

once shot and used it didn't really reveal itself until we actually saw it.

And I realized that it wasn't really truthful, and didn't really work.

But we loved the murder scene of Agatha.

We thought it was actually even cooler that she's just this random victim,

so that part ended up staying in the film.

Of course, the dialogue changed a little bit.

You don't see Sutter what he's actually saying, but we altered the dialogue

to fit within the concept of Martin proving that he's a team player.

Now this scene represents Martin's fear of the bull.

Now the purpose of these guardians is a psychological trauma on Sutter's part.

What he's doing is basically using those guardians,

and from a young age made Martin believe that they were real.

And that they would attack him and devour him if he tried to escape.

So he used it as sort of this like psychological trick

to keep Martin from running away.

In essence that is the reason why Martin

never leaves because he's afraid of those things.

And that's what that dream represents.

But eventually when Martin kills Sutter, and stays on the property he doesn't

leave is because he's kind of been indoctrinated into this way of life.

And he doesn't really have anywhere to go, so he just doesn't leave.

I've mentioned things about the influence of things like the Helsinki Syndrome

where people are abducted, and become friends with their captors,

and even when given the opportunity to leave they choose not to.

There's been several cases documented of this sort of thing

happening even recently, so there's the concept behind that idea.

It also kind of explains the reaction on Martin's face

when he sees Alex could get over.

This scene kind of mirrors the scene with Michael Biehn

when he was also explaining to Alex why she shouldn't hang around with William.

Again, it's kind of redundant information at this point,

which is another reason why that scene was cut,

but I think you could watch that scene.

I think it is included on the DVD.

This scene was originally cut from the theatrical release of "Bereavement."

I cut it for time, but I do think it's an important scene in retrospect

that needed to be included so that you could understand what was really

going on in Alex's head or Allison's head at this moment in time.

What's interesting is John Savage, we contacted him I forget the reason.

It was something to do with payroll,

but we contacted him about a year after this film was completed.

He had no conscious memory of being in the film,

or even being in Pennsylvania at that time.

So according to him he never actually was in this movie,

but I have the proof because here it is.

So John, you were there.

Fantastic as always.

Here's another interesting note.

There are houses that dot the landscape, and we took them out digitally

if they happened to appear on camera for the most part.

The reason behind that is the same reason that when filming "Jaws"

Steven Spielberg didn't want you to see any of the sailboats in the background.

The idea is to convey a complete sense of isolation

that there is no one around to help these people out.

Nobody is coming to the rescue.

Now with this scene in particular a lot of people wondered

why she would go into this slaughterhouse after this kid.

My answer to that is, well, absolutely, cuz teenagers always do the right thing,

and teenagers never do anything that puts themselves in danger.

I'm being sarcastic, but in essence that's true.

The right thing to do here would be to go back, and call the police,

but, again, that kind of would bring the movie to a screeching halt.

Or she can go back and talk to Jonathan,

but right now they're not talking to each other.

So for me truly the only thing to do would be to go in and investigate yourself.

And throughout the entire movie she has been very interested

in whether or not she was right about this kid being there.

So kids and their curiosity... one thing leads to another.

Now in all fairness in the original script she doesn't go in as deeply

as she does here.

She goes in just partial of the way,

and she does get scared, and the floor below her collapses.

She gets trapped, and she's now forced to try and find her way out in there,

and eventually finds Martin.

So it wasn't just her going and searching for him,

but we had issues shooting that scene.

There were some issues with danger because we wanted to do it on this location.

We didn't want to do it off set.

I remember it posed a number of logistical problems,

safety problems which I wasn't willing to put my actors in danger.

So we came up with an alternative,

and that was to have the boy basically lead her down.

In the end I actually prefer this scenario better because I think it does bring

out this sort of motherly instinct in her in that she wants to help this kid.

And once she goes in halfway she realizes she's come this far she might as well

go the rest of the way, and find out if there's a way she can help this kid.

So it's her being a good person, and look at the thanks she gets a knife in the gut.

This scene is comprised of sections that were shot in multiple locations.

I think there's a total of one, two, three, three different locations

that make up the entirety of her walk through Sutter's catacombs here.

Right here she's on a sound stage that we built.

And now that she's walked through this door this is the real slaughterhouse in Ironton.

Again, another great job by Jack Ryan designing Sutter's lair in here.

The really cool thing is most of this stuff existed on location.

We just collected what we needed and utilized it which

I think is really cool because it gives it a realistic look.

Everything feels old and rusty and sharp.

And when you watch this movie I think one of the great aspects

of the production design that they were able to achieve was just

utilizing all these practical things that were available to us.

When you're watching certain horror films you can tell when something's manufactured.

It really stands out when something is kind of created

for the scene instead of putting these people into these real life sets.

To me that's always more interesting.

I don't know how other people feel, but for me it makes a big difference

because intuitively I know when I'm being sold on a fake set.

It really stands out.

Even these photographs were things that we found in the rubble of this place.

This section that she's walking into here is an underground section of a barn

at the slaughterhouse where they used to house the animals,

and feed them before they were slaughtered.

It's really just one of the nastiest places on earth.

When we first went in there there were dead animals everywhere,

not pigs or anything, but foxes and squirrels, and animals that had

found their way in, and couldn't find their way out and just died.

There were spiders the size of your right hand.

It's pretty creepy.

Very, very difficult conditions to shoot under.

Really gross, but it looks effective on film.

That's the real deal.

This entire section was part of some second unit that we did.

The cinematography here was done by someone named Brendan Flynt

who was my cinematographer on "Brutal Massacre.”

Also, a very, very talented cinematographer.

I remember this scene, we were all very, very tired while shooting this.

This is like literally five in the morning.

We had been going for at least 20 hours,

22 hours, and we had done the same the night before.

Everybody looks pretty haggard, but I think kind of works for the scene.

Another note because these were re-shoots some things

the continuity wasn't clear cut as Spencer's hair was actually blonde,

and we had to dye it back to its original color.

That's why it looks a little strange there in that scene.

Here, Michael Biehn is actually upset because he was late for dinner reservations

that he had made for this night after the shoot.

That's why he looks all pissed off.

I'm just kidding.

Here's a scene where we used real rats.

It was a challenge to get them to do what we wanted them to do.

It turns out that there was a place right around the corner

from where we shot in Allentown that raises rats in this 100-year-old building.

They took us down a few flights of stairs into the basement and they opened the door.

And there's literally tens of thousands of rats in these tubs

and tubes, and boxes, I guess they're raising them.

I don't remember what exactly they were raising them for.

I guess to sell them for whatever, but it was pretty shocking to see all that,

and the smell was pretty shocking, too.

Anyway, the rat became the pet of one of the crew, and I think is still doing well.

I get pictures of it every now and then in my inbox.

This scene here is something else that was slightly altered

because of scenes prior that were changed.

Originally Allison and William have a fight right before she

gets abducted by Sutter, and that dovetailed into this scene.

But because that was deleted this scene kind of changed a little bit.

Now this is where it really kind of kicks into high gear.

Of course, watching this film for the first time you think, okay, well, Michael Biehn,

is going to go now, and kick some ass, and this movie is about to end pretty quickly.

I think one of the great things about casting someone like Michael

is that that's exactly what you're expecting.

So when he gets dispatched the way he does it's kind of a big shock.

In most of the screenings that I attended watching this film

with an audience we got the biggest gasp during that moment

because it's not something that anybody was expecting.

It was a lot of fun.

What also is kind of cool... well, it wasn't cool at the time.

When we shot the scene where Michael Biehn gets blown away with the shotgun

we found out that the special effects person had only brought one squib,

so we only had one chance to get it right.

It was a pretty big production to get all that set up correctly to work,

so to only have one chance to get it right was was pretty frightening.

Fortunately, I was working with some terrific people,

and we got it right the first time.

In fact, all of this was shot on Steadicam in one take because the sun was going down.

Again, so many factors working against you.

In an independent film you don't get to come back, and do it again the next day.

You've got one shot and that's it for the most part.

We ran through as quickly as we could to get the shots

we needed of him approaching the house.

Then we literally had to run upstairs, and get everything set.

We had two cameras doing the gun shot.

When you watch the scene you'll see it cuts to a wide angle.

I had to get up onto the second floor of the slaughterhouse to monitor that camera.

We had the A camera on the first floor doing the closeup of it,

which is this shot right here, and everything had to be synchronized.

We literally had minutes to turn it around, and, man, that was stressful.

And this was literally almost like doing live television.

We had run out of light by then so the light you see there is not actual sunlight.

That's something that we rigged to look like sunlight to replicate it,

but we were in the dark at this point.

So this section coming up where he tosses her in the freezer.

In this location there are several gigantic freezers.

But they weren't situated where I wanted them to be,

so, actually, we built something.

We built the housing for the freezer, but the door itself is taken

from one of the actual freezer doors from the Ironton slaughterhouse.

So that door is real.

Everything else is manufactured here.

A funny note with this scene.

We shot this several times, and, obviously, it's a very difficult scene to shoot.

There's a lot of physicality to the acting here,

so to do it over and over is very stressful for the actors and for us.

But we noticed during the first couple of takes

that we could see ourselves in the glass.

We didn't notice that until we watched it played back.

We were kind of in the middle of the action,

and didn't really realize until like the fourth take.

It was very difficult to go down there after so many very,

very fantastic takes to tell them they had to go and start all over again.

The person you saw on the bike in the wide shots was someone named Joseph Boyko

who lived just down the road from the slaughterhouse.

He just happened to come along with his wife, Chrissy.

They turned out to be an incredible help in helping us

with specific things that we needed during the shoot.

Not just doing stunt riding on the motorcycle,

but also wrangling cars for us during some of the opening sequences.

Even down to things like catering they really helped out.

Also, to make it look like a freezer the original plan was to pump in cold air.

The mechanism to be able to do that was extraordinarily expensive.

Fortunately, for us it happened to be an extraordinarily cold night

that night so you could see her breath anyway.

Now you could put that in digitally that's true,

but it always looks better when it's real, and for other reasons, too.

I'm sure all the 14-year-old boys in the audience are very glad that

it was very cold that night for obvious reasons, but we won't get into that.

Now what's also interesting, too, is a lot of people ask why would he go down there?

He did see Jonathan's truck.

He knows that Jonathan was looking for Allison.

Obviously, he's very curious as to why he ended up there.

You'll find in rural areas people are not as squeamish as city folk.

They'll go into all sorts of unlit,

dark and spider infested areas with not a care in the world.

When you're from an area like that

you don't really think twice about those things.

I think it's a different type of mentality,

and I think he would have gone in there looking for her.

I love the look on Martin's face, Spencer's face there.

Really fantastic.

You know it's very difficult to convey emotion with no words,

but with just body language, especially, for a nine-year-old.

I think it's really a testament to his acting ability to be able to convey

those accurate emotions without anything other than just a facial expression.

I think he did a fantastic job.

I thought he looks kind of like the kid from "The Omen" in that last sequence.

Very creepy.

Now this scene initially the way it's written Sutter doesn't kill William here.

He actually knocks him out, and then he kills him later on, he actually hangs him.

But I thought it was going to be a lot more effective to have him

kill William right in front of her as she watches helplessly.

And it's kind of indicative of how we feel as an audience watching this scene.

Although I think our effects person got a little over zealous with blood there.

You can never have too much blood.

I think Nolan plays dead very well here.

You really believe that he's deceased the way the arm flips.

It's very convincing.

So she's having a very bad day.

Now this is kind of like the darknet of the soul for Sutter.

What they're telling him is that he's got to go,

and kill the rest of the family, otherwise, he'll be found out.

And he's fighting it because he doesn't want to go along with it anymore.

This is kind of like a turning point for him, and his character

where he stars to rebel against what they're ordering him to do.

Essentially they eventually say to him, well,

if you don't do it we'll find someone who will.

And that's how the conversation leads into talking about Martin downstairs.

What's interesting about this scene is you're getting a glimpse into his humanity.

He's not just a monster, he's kind of a victim too.

Again, just to reiterate the bull is following him.

It's not actually on the wall, it's all in his brain.

Obviously, when you see him smash it,

and it's back up on the wall you realize that as an audience.

It gives you a glimpse into the fact that he was also victimized.

And therein lies the connection of this cycle of violence demonstrating

that it's kind of handed down from generation to generation,

and what was perpetuated on him he's now perpetuating on a boy.

There are several themes similar to that that run throughout the film.

Another one is this sense of being trapped.

If you really break it down everybody in the film is trapped.

Sutter is trapped by his demons.

Martin is trapped by Sutter.

Allison is trapped because she's forced to come

and live at this isolated location because her parents are dead.

Ted, William's father is trapped by being in a wheelchair.

And William is trapped because he's forced to take care of Ted, his father.

Even the conversation at the drive-in where Allison's character talks

about her grandmother who's agoraphobic and can't leave the house..

Even her grandmother is trapped, so that theme kind of recurs throughout the movie.

Sutter is now realizing that what he thought

was a way out maybe isn't necessarily the way out.

He's confused now,

which leads into his epiphany at the end when he's at the Miller house.

So essentially Sutter was redeemable in some way, whereas, Martin's character

as you'll learn if you eventually see all three stories is not redeemable.

There's no saving him, or is there?

I guess you'll have to tune in and see.

That's a creepy shot.

This is my favorite scene in the movie

because it kind of demonstrates how Sutter also never really grew up.

He's still kind of a child trapped in a man's body.

I also love this scene not just for Rickaby's performance,

but for Spencer's performance, too.

Even though he's just sitting in a chair staring into space.

Anyone who's worked with children knows that these types of scenes

can be very, very difficult.

In this moment when he stabs Martin's hand he realizes in a way

what he's done to this kid and that he's created this monster.

And for the first time he actually fears Martin.

There's a sequence that was omitted

where after this he goes in and writes in his journal for the last time.

He talks about how he knows Martin is going to kill him tonight.

It's actually the piece that was read by the FBI detective in the end,

but it was omitted for time.

I don't know if I would have been able to make this film

had it not been for the disease that Martin suffers from.

To inflict that kind of damage on a child, and to have to watch his pain reaction

I think would have been too much for any audience to suffer through.

I know it would have been just too difficult to shoot a film like that.

I think in a way his lack of reaction is the only reason

why we're able to get through those horrific moments in this movie.

For me anyway, I know I couldn't do it any other way.

I was wrestling with the idea of how to create a way for her

to escape from being locked in the freezer.

And it turns out that the metal rod that she uses here

to jimmy the lock is something that was actually devised by the people

who created this freezer for the Ironton slaughterhouse.

In case someone accidentally did,

and had the door close behind them it was a way to basically jimmy the lock open,

and free themselves if something like that happened.

We, of course, incorporated it into the scene, and we needed that anyway

because we needed a way for her to escape, so it worked out.

Now all of these locations are in different places, so here we're on the set.

Prior to that we're on a different set,

and in the very next shot we're on a different set.

When she gets to the stairs we're actually on the live set of the slaughterhouse.

That was a combination of four different locations just to make that one small run.

Of course, here she still doesn't realize that Martin is pure evil so she goes

to rescue him in hopes of bringing him home, and reuniting him with his family.

As we all know that was a mistake.

Unless, of course, you're watching the commentary first

before you watch the actual movie.

In that respect then I apologize for all the spoilers.

So this is the big epiphany for Martin

realizing that these guardian demons are not real, and they're not going to eat him.

I think, also...

Well, I know, because I wrote it, that is the reason why Martin comes back,

and has the ability to take Sutter on and kill him.

Because the threat of retaliation from the beasts are gone,

and, also, in retaliation for all the lives.

It's the culmination of all that and all that anger.

Big props to Alex, too, for being able to carry Martin all that way.

We shot over the course of an entire night.

There was a good 20 or 30 takes

where she's carrying him over the hills and down the road and it was raining.

Just an incredible amount of stamina that she showed,

and toughing it out and getting through those scenes is just amazing.

This was actually a very fun scene to shoot.

Brett and Kathryn were true professionals.

It seemed like they had been doing this their whole life

like they were professional wrestlers or something.

They knew exactly what they needed to do to stay safe

and make the scene look believable, and really made my job very easy.

To those of you who are fans of gore that scene was actually much,

much nastier when we first cut it together.

I just felt it was just too nasty.

It was very mean-spirited.

I think it's somehow more effective to see the reaction

on Wendy's face than it is to see the physical murder of the mom.

I don't know it's just my opinion,

and since I'm the director I get to make those decisions.

We couldn't actually burn down the house.

All the scenes with the flames are on an external set that we shot.

In another completely different location out in the woods where we built

basically half a set, a hollow set and then burned it to the ground.

Those are always fun.

I like the cow in the corner there.

Some fun by the art department.

This scene of him walking up the stairs took about three hours to shoot.

Just that shot... because dogs don't like to cooperate.

Well, they do until you shout "action”, and then they do something else.

They do whatever they want.

So just don't shout "action".

Just run the camera and the dog will do whatever you want.

Don't make the mistake that I made in trusting that dog to do

what he's supposed to do and to hit his marks because dogs don't.

And they waste film and time, and they try your patience.

If it was me I wouldn't have let the dog go.

So here's the epiphany where he realizes

that everything he's done up to this point has been wrong.

I mean, he's been questioning himself for a while now, but something she said,

obviously, "don't hurt my animals” snapped a spring in his brain.

It's all coming full circle.

He's realizing the error that he's made.

It culminates in him being stabbed,

and realizing the pain is real, and shattering his illusion.

If you listen to some of the dialogue

I kind of infer a lot of the things that I've discussed on this audio,

some of the more psychological aspects to his motivations.

They're not necessarily readily apparent

when you watch it the first time and listen to the dialogue.

It might just seem like rambling,

but there is specific intent with each line for those who care to investigate,

and really pay attention.

It's a very tragic finale.

I think because the film allows you to breathe,

and get to know these characters...

you feel it much more when you've gotten to know these people,

and care about these people.

So it's an earth shattering moment for him.

I love that fall by Brett... the perfect placement of the hand with the blood.

It's just one of those magical movie moments.

In a way when Martin stabs her and kills her

you initially watch it it's very shocking.

"How dare he do that when she tried to help him."

But in the end it's the only way the film could have ended.

Retrospectively when you watch the entire film back again you realize

that there was only one way for this thing to go, and that was badly.

Realizing all the things that this kid's been exposed to.

So now you realize here that he is nothing but pure evil,

worse than Sutter, really worse that anybody out there.

Not only is he completely deranged, and not only does he not know

the difference between right and wrong, but he's also impervious to pain.

He can't empathize with your pain because he doesn't know what it feels like.

So in a way he's truly the most dangerous of all the serial killers

who have ever gone before him, and that includes Jason and Myers.

Those guys were untrained and undisciplined.

Martin represents that more younger, and sophisticated breed of mass murderer.

See how he walks without making a sound.

That's a key characteristic for any killer who wants to have success.

You can't let them know you're coming.

And the scale model...

Fantastic job by Jeff Cox who created a magic potion that burns in a certain way

that you can shoot it in a certain frame rate,

and make it look like real fire and real flame using a very, very small model.

Normally you'd have to use a model that's like half the scale,

or quarter of the scale.

This was like 1/10th or less of scale,

which is pretty revolutionary, at least that's what he told me.

Rickaby was actually suffering from stomach cramps from something

he ate at the craft services that night, so he's not really acting here.

He's actually doubled over in anguish and pain, so this is all real right here.

Well, except for that.

This is me.

I'm shooting this.

This is why they call me Unsteadicam Steve.

That's real rats up here on this 2nd floor of this house, which is over 200 years old.

It's teeming with mice and rats,

so you have to tuck your pants into your socks when you're up there.

All the very realistic effects here of Sutter's dismemberment were done by Toetag

who are known for creating some pretty outrageous blood and gore effects.

They did a really fantastic job here... almost too good.

Originally this scene was not as graphic, but I felt that it needed to be

because you really want to feel like Sutter got what was coming to him.

I thought the only way to do that was to really just take him apart.

Spencer was thrilled that he got to come in, and participate in this sequence

since he didn't get to kill his sister on-screen.

He had the most fun when blood was spurting.

He's a really cool kid.

So that's a picture of what should be Sutter as a boy and his dad.

And in that picture the person who is the stand-in for Sutter's dad

is actually Joseph Boyko, the guy who lived down the street.

So, see that. You never know how things are going to turn out.

So there's Riley in his cameo appearance for this film.

Of course, everybody who has seen "Malevolence" knows who he is.

Riley is, of course, played by John Ingram.

And the dog lives so, see, it is a happy ending.

Okay, so this scene with John Savage has survived.

Initially,

this scene has a very different impact because John's character is kind of a jerk.

By this point you kind of feel like he got what's coming to him by being left alone...

he got what he deserved.

But in this scene the way the story ended up you feel very sorry for him.

I actually like the way that plays out because it kind of goes along

with what I've been saying how the point of the exercise here was to show how this

kind of violence affects not just the victim, but the people who knew the victim.

The people who counted on the victim.

Who's going to take care of him now?

So it's a much different impact, which I actually think is pretty cool.

So here Martin is hammering up Sutter's bones to the wall.

Anyone who's seen "Malevolence" and wondered how,

or what this bull skeleton was... these are Sutter's bones.

This is kind of like Martin thumbing his nose at Sutter for all the years of torture

and torment that he put him through thinking that the bull guards were real.

It's kind of his way of flipping him the bird, and getting back at him for all that.

It also serves as a warning to anyone who trespasses and what their fate will be.

To be continued, or to be concluded.

Well, if you made it this far... congratulations!

Thank you very much for spending some time with me,

and thank you very much for watching "Bereavement," and giving it a shot.

I really appreciate it.

Tremendous, tremendous amount of hard work went into creating this film,

A big round of applause to all the people on this list in these credits

who worked very, very hard to make this film a reality.

I hope you all join us for the third chapter.

Subtitles: Christopher Coco (c) 2020 Turbine Medien GmbH